The High Court has struck down CIC order that file noting by one officer meant for the next officer with whom he may be in a hierarchical relationship, is in the nature of a fiduciary entrustment, it should not ordinarily be disclosed and surely not without any concurrence of the officer preparing that note.
High Court ruled that "Any noting made in the official records of the Government/public authority is information belonging to the concerned Government/public authority. The question whether the information relates to a third party is to be determined by the nature of the information and not its source."
The reasoning, that the notings or information generated by an employee during the course of his employment is his information and thus has to be treated as relating to a third party, was considered flawed.
Court further stated that "Section 8 of the Act provides for exemption from disclosure of certain information and none of the provisions of Section 8 provides for a blanket exemption that entitles the respondent to withhold all notings on a file."
CIC has earlier made the decision on the basis that when the file noting by one officer meant for the next officer with whom he may be in a hierarchical relationship, is in the nature of a fiduciary entrustment, it should not ordinarily be disclosed and surely not without any concurrence of the officer preparing that note. The file noting for a confidential and secret part would attract the provisions of Section 8(1)(e) as well as Section 11(1) of the RTI Act.
The contention of the CIC was struck down and the court directed CIC to take the decision within 3 months. Earlier, however, Central Information Commission (CIC) in their Decision No. ICPB/A-1/CIC/2006 dt.31.01.2006, has held that “file notings are not, as a matter of law, exempt from disclosure”.
Usefulness of the High Court Order
The above decision is highly relevant for users who are filing RTI to know the Status of their earlier RTI. RTI Applicant can now use following questions in their RTI application
Complete details of file notings made on the above said file number as on date.
Separately the daily progress made in case of above said file till date i.e. when did it reach which officer/functionary, how long did it stay with that officer/functionary and what did that officer/functionary, do during that period on the said letter together with file noting and name and designation of each officer/functionary
List of the officers with their designation to whom before the said file is placed. Also, provide me with the noting made by them on the said file.

Can a citizen who is an ineligible candidate and had agitated his grievance before Hon’ble Minister and the CAT but failed to get any relief is disqualified from getting information under RTI? The answer is NO. Can CPIO introduce new reasons for Denial of Information under RTI? Guess what! The CPIO thinks so, but thankfully not the CIC.
Once an applicant seeks information as defined in Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, the same cannot be denied to the information seeker except on any of the grounds mentioned in Section 8 or 9 of the RTI Act, the Public Information Officer or the First Appellate Authority cannot add or introduce new reasons for Denial or grounds for rejecting furnishing of information.
An RTI Applicant who is officiating SDI(P) East Gurgaon and a qualified Postmaster Grade-1 have taken the promotional Departmental exam of IPO-2011 on 15 and 16 October 2011 and reexamination for Paper-III on 29/01/2012 from Haryana Circle, Ambala. He wanted following information related to this:
1- No. of marks obtained by me in each paper.
2- OMR Copy of answer sheets of each papers with key.
In nutshell he had appeared in a departmental examination and needed copies of his answer sheets and the marks obtained by him in each of the papers. The CPIO denied the information stating that the he is an ineligible candidate and had agitated his grievance before Hon’ble Minister and the CAT but failed to get any relief.
Introduce new reasons for Denial
When the matter came before CIC for hearing, a simple query from the Commission under which clause of the RTI Act exemption is being claimed for denying the information the CPIO could not give any satisfactory response.
The Commission stated that:
The appellant is seeking his own answer sheets and the marks obtained by him in a departmental examination in which he had participated. The CPIO is unable to show any exemption under the stated provisions of Section 8 or 9 of the RTI Act under which the information can be withheld. It being so, there is no ground for denying the information and the CPIO should furnish the same to the appellant within 7 days from the date of receipt of this order.
Here are the discussion threads at Forum containing the information about Denial of Information and you can read into many such discussion how CPIO sometimes introduce new reasons for Denial.

"When any public authority denies a fundamental right of a citizen the minimum requirement is that the
relevant provision of Section 8(1) should be given with some explanation about how it is
applicable. "
"The Commission finds that no satisfactory reasons have been provided by the PIO for not
disclosing the enquiry report. No reasoning has beengiven by the Appellate Authority as to how
Section 8(1) (j) applies. The Commission takes a very dim view of PIOs or Appellate Authorities
quoting provisions of Section 8(1) without giving any reasons asto how they apply. When any
public authority denies a fundamental right of a citizen the minimum requirement is that the
relevant provision of Section 8(1) should be given with someexplanation about how it is
applicable.
Decision:
The Appeal is allowed. "
http://rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/SG-04062009-04.pdf
if PIO applies 8(1) then he needs to explain how its applicable.pdf

hi to all members,
i am here to share my experiences related to rti act
presently m presenting second appeal to SIC bhopal
facts are-
my questions for state bank of india were-
1} how many officers posted at branches/offices at indore whose transfer orders have been issued for more than 5 months but they have not yet been relieved/provide their names along with the date of their transfer orders
2} inform the specific dates on which they will be relieved and the reason for each officers who have not been relieved till now
3} if the transfer order of any one{officer} has been cancelled then give the name of such officer and the reason thereof
i was denied information under section 8 (1)(d) and section 8(1)(j)
please suggest me what shud i write in my appeal